The plan was to wake up at 4:30 am and drive the 4 hours to Amboy, California (about 15 minutes past "middle of nowhere") to take advantage of the most daylight hours we could. That was the plan. The reality is that I had a bad sleep night and only got 2.5 hours of rest. Waking up at 4:30 am was NOT a happy thought. We got out of the house a little late, but Brian got us there. That was the next painful reality.
View from our first hunting spot. It was so clear we could see to Yucca.
Can you see the long black line in the distance? That's where the paved road is. Really, that's it. Brian had to kinda make his own path across the desert to the hiking trail ... in my minivan. There are so few plants and the dirt path was so packed that we could barely see the tracks from previous travelers. THEN ... yeah, it keeps going ... we had to pretty much abandon our van behind the hill there where the little arrow is pointing. We started walking what seemed to be an easy enough trail. Then it got steep.
Brian at the top of the mountain
See how steep it gets?! And how much rock has already been hunted through and broken up. It was so slippery up there. I started getting worried about a kid falling down.
Jon gets down and dirty looking for fossils
Sadly, nothing was found in this area. By luck there were a four other guys out there fossil hunting (and they were the only other humans we saw all day). They had been there before and after not finding anything by us, they went to another area they remembered as being a good spot. As they were leaving they directed us to that part of the mountain and the kids all found a few treasures. The fossils they found are called trilobites, believed to be in existence around 550 million years ago. They didn't find any complete fossils, but lots of partials.
By that time I was so exhausted I was back at the bottom of the mountain and about falling asleep in the van. Since it was getting later, and colder, everyone came down the mountain. We had one other stop before heading back home.
Amboy Crater
Just down the road was a turn off to Amboy Crater. It was already getting dark, so we couldn't hike very far out, but it was a neat place to explore. We were all giddy and silly, which is probably why we thought it was so much fun. The kids want to go back and check it all out again. I'm not sure if that might be a perfect "daddy day trip". :)
View from our first hunting spot. It was so clear we could see to Yucca.Can you see the long black line in the distance? That's where the paved road is. Really, that's it. Brian had to kinda make his own path across the desert to the hiking trail ... in my minivan. There are so few plants and the dirt path was so packed that we could barely see the tracks from previous travelers. THEN ... yeah, it keeps going ... we had to pretty much abandon our van behind the hill there where the little arrow is pointing. We started walking what seemed to be an easy enough trail. Then it got steep.
Brian at the top of the mountainSee how steep it gets?! And how much rock has already been hunted through and broken up. It was so slippery up there. I started getting worried about a kid falling down.
Jon gets down and dirty looking for fossilsSadly, nothing was found in this area. By luck there were a four other guys out there fossil hunting (and they were the only other humans we saw all day). They had been there before and after not finding anything by us, they went to another area they remembered as being a good spot. As they were leaving they directed us to that part of the mountain and the kids all found a few treasures. The fossils they found are called trilobites, believed to be in existence around 550 million years ago. They didn't find any complete fossils, but lots of partials.
By that time I was so exhausted I was back at the bottom of the mountain and about falling asleep in the van. Since it was getting later, and colder, everyone came down the mountain. We had one other stop before heading back home.
Amboy CraterJust down the road was a turn off to Amboy Crater. It was already getting dark, so we couldn't hike very far out, but it was a neat place to explore. We were all giddy and silly, which is probably why we thought it was so much fun. The kids want to go back and check it all out again. I'm not sure if that might be a perfect "daddy day trip". :)
1 comment:
Holy cow - now THAT is an adventure! I was loving hte idea until i read "4 hour drive" That one definitely counts for a lot of fun parent points :)
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